Box divider unit and method for its manufacture

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into at least six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsed having the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges as viewed from a side. The steps being formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottom leaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length. The first intermediate leaf being disposed between the short top leaf and the central elongated leaves, and the second intermediate leaf being disposed between the short bottom leaf and the central elongated leaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of its thickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of the compartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to the transverse cut, the connecting line being formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to the transverse cut.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Israel Application No. 161605,filed on Apr. 25, 2004.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the packaging of multiple articles.

More particularly, the invention provides a resilient protective boxdivider, and a method for its manufacture.

Beverages, pharmaceuticals and many other products are filled into hardcontainers, such as glass bottles, and are often shipped in cartonboxes. Box dividers are used to divide the carton into a multiplicity ofindividual cells, typically square shaped, each cell holding oneproduct, item or container. The divider thus prevents impact, possiblebreakage and/or abrasion when during transportation adjacent containerswould otherwise rub or impact each other. Currently nearly all boxdividers are made out of carton, the dividers serving to ensure thatthere is no contact between the items being marketed. Various forms ofthis type of divider are seen in recent U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,148,9425,190,212 5,601,521 6,024,241 6,499,655 6,547,126 and 6,669,082.

The simple divider, an oblong carton strip with a series of cuts to halfthe divider height, has been in use for at least a hundred years, andthere is no doubt as to its efficacy. The main problem with this divideris that time is required to assemble the dividers in the carton. Thedegree of protection given by this divider is adequate for the vastmajority of product items, although extremely fragile items, for exampleitems made of thin glass, may still be damaged under rough handling.Furthermore this divider is made of two parts which must be assembled.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to obviatethe disadvantages of prior art box dividers and to provide a dividermade of a foamed elastomer which provides protection of fragile itemseven under rough handling conditions during transport or storage.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a one piecedivider.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a box dividerhaving a flat space-saving configuration for storage and yet can bedeployed within a few seconds into its ready-to-use configuration.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a method for themanufacture of the novel design disclosed herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention achieves the above objects by providing afoamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into atleast six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsedhaving the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges asviewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face centralelongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottomleaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length,said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leafand said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leafbeing disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongatedleaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its lengthfrom adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of itsthickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of saidcompartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined toadjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to saidtransverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncutmaterial adjacent to said transverse cut.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided afoamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into atleast six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsedhaving the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges asviewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face centralelongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottomleaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length,said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leafand said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leafbeing disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongatedleaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its lengthfrom adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of itsthickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of saidcompartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined toadjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to saidtransverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncutmaterial adjacent to said transverse cut.

In a most preferred embodiment of the present invention there isprovided a method for manufacturing a foamed-elastomer collapsible boxdivider, comprising the following steps:

-   -   providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available of thickness        equal to the height of the desired box divider;    -   alternatively bonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer        sheets, the total height of the stack being equal to the height        of the required box divider;    -   blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts and the        short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood        based steel-rule die.

Yet further embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafter.

It will thus be realized that the novel device of the present inventioncan be expanded from its compact configuration to its deployedconfiguration simply by grasping the smallest leaves and drawing themapart. The divider is made as a one-piece item and requires no assemblyand is fitted into the shipping carton while held in its deployed state.The four sidewalls of the carton retain the divider in its deployedstate, and so the divider is ready for immediate use.

Manufacture of the box divider may be achieved by a single stroke of acombined blanking and cutting die, no further manufacturing processbeing required. A plywood-base steel rule die is used, such die beingwell suited for the cutting of soft materials, including the foam rubberor foam urethane which are the preferred materials for the divider ofthe present invention. Dies of this type are widely used for shapecutting of boxes and cartons, and have been developed into a maturetechnology.

In the following drawings and description reference is made to asquare-shaped divider 5 by 5, i.e. having 25 compartments. The collapseddivider shown has a left-right symmetrical form, the two shortest leavesbeing directly opposite each other. There is however no difficulty inproducing a divider for a rectangular (oblong) carton. In its compactconfiguration such a divider would be asymmetrical, and the short upperand lower leaves would not be directly opposite each other.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described further with reference to theaccompanying drawings, which represent by example preferred embodimentsof the invention. Structural details are shown only as far as necessaryfor a fundamental understanding thereof. The described examples,together with the drawings, will make apparent to those skilled in theart how further forms of the invention may be realized.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a photograph of a preferred embodiment of the deployed boxdivider according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the divider in its compactconfiguration;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged detail view of a part of the divider seen in FIG.2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an embodiment made out of a plurality ofbonded-together foamed elastomer sheets;

and

FIG. 5 is a photograph of the divider in a partially deployed state.

FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

There is seen in FIG. 1 an extended foamed-elastomer collapsible boxdivider 10 for dividing a carton box 12 into 25 cushioned compartments14. The elastomer is a rubber or a flexible thermoplastic such asurethane.

The divider 10 is held in its deployed configuration by the walls 16,18, 20, 22 of the carton 12 into which it is inserted.

A plurality of short cuts 24, to be described with reference to FIG. 2,appear as square-section hollow prisms 26 located at the center of anyarray comprising four compartments 14 arranged in a squareconfiguration.

With reference to the rest of the figures, similar reference numeralshave been used to identify similar parts.

When collapsed, as seen in FIG. 2 and in the enlarged detail of FIG. 3,the divider 10 has the form of an elongated component stepped on fouredges when viewed from a side. The steps 28 are formed by twoface-to-face central elongated leaves 30, in combination with a shorttop 32 and a short bottom leaf 34. In the present embodiment there arethree first 36, 38, 40 and three second leaves 42, 44 46 of intermediatelength. The first intermediate leaves 36, 38 40 are disposed between theshort top leaf 32 and the central elongated leaves 30, and the secondintermediate leaves 42, 44, 46 are disposed between the short bottomleaf 34 and the central elongated leaves 30.

Each leaf is separate along a major portion of its length from adjacentleaves due to a series of long cuts 48.

Furthermore, a series of short transverse cuts 24 are seen between thelong cuts 48 at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of thecompartments 14. The transverse cuts 24 extend through only a portion ofthe leaf thickness. The resulting form is that each elongated andintermediate leaf is joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrowconnecting line 50 adjacent to the transverse cut 24, and seen mostclearly in FIG. 3. The connecting line 50 is formed by the remaininguncut material adjacent to the transverse cut 24.

FIG. 4 illustrates a box divider 54 as wherein the height of the divideris built up by stacking multiple sheets of foamed elastomer 56, 58, 60,each sheet being bonded to each adjacent sheet.

In order to further illustrate the form of the divider, there is shownin FIG. 5 a photograph of the divider 10 in a partially collapsedconfiguration. However in practice either the divider is storedcompletely collapsed as in FIG. 2 or it is deployed completely extendedas in FIG. 1, the midway position being shown in the figure being forillustrative purposes only.

The present invention also includes a method for manufacturing afoamed-elastomer collapsible box divider, comprising the followingsteps:

-   1. Providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available of thickness    equal to the height of the desired box divider.-   2. Alternatively: bonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer    sheets, the total height of the stack being equal to the height of    the required box divider, as seen in FIG. 4.-   3. Blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts and the    short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood based    steel-rule die. The form of the die corresponds to the pattern seen    at the upper portion of FIG. 4

The scope of the described invention is intended to include allembodiments coming within the meaning of the following claims. Theforegoing examples illustrate useful forms of the invention, but are notto be considered as limiting its scope, as those skilled in the art willbe aware that additional variants and modifications of the invention canreadily be formulated without departing from the meaning of thefollowing claims.

1. A foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into atleast six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsedhaving the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges asviewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face centralelongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottomleaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length,said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leafand said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leafbeing disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongatedleaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its lengthfrom adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of itsthickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of saidcompartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined toadjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to saidtransverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncutmaterial adjacent to said transverse cut.
 2. The box divider as claimedin claim 1, wherein when extended, said short cut appears as asquare-section hollow prism located at the center of any arraycomprising four compartments arranged in a square configuration.
 3. Thebox divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein the height of the divider isbuilt up by stacking multiple sheets of foamed elastomer, each sheetbeing bonded to each adjacent sheet.
 4. The foamed elastomer collapsiblebox divider, wherein said elastomer is a rubber.
 5. A method formanufacturing a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider, comprising thefollowing steps: providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available ofthickness equal to the height of the desired box divider; alternativelybonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer sheets, the totalheight of the stack being equal to the height of the required boxdivider; and blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts andthe short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood basedsteel-rule die.